Happenstance
by pumpkintoasty
Summary: Cissy Blythe comes to stay with Jane Stuart, her cousin's new girlfriend, and learns a great deal. Jane of Lantern Hill and Anne descendant fic.


A/N: Yay! LMM! Yay! Jane of Lanturn Hill and Anne, the future generations! In one fic! I'm so excited.

Jane is close to being my favorite LMM charecter. She needs more fanfic!

Obligatory Disclaimer: I don't own LMM's charecter Jane or her family. I kind of own Cissy Blythe, but that seems to matter a little bit less, non?

_ Happenstance_

Cissy Blythe hitched her hand bag up further on her shoulder as she tried to juggle that, her suitcases and the phone. Finally she managed to balance the receiver on her shoulder while freeing a hand to dial the operator. Again.

"How may I pace your call?" came the disinterested tone. Again.

"Andrew Stuart home, please."

"One moment, please." Then briefly came a dull tone down the line before the ringing began. Again. But now came something new: after a few moments, someone actually picked up.

"Finally," thought Cissy before listening carefully as a young, cheery female voice answered, "Hello, Stuart residence. Emily speaking."

"Hello, Emily. Is Jane there?"

"Uhm…" Cissy bit her lip, wondering what she would do if the answer was no, before the reply finally came, "Oh, yeah! She just got back. May I tell her who's calling?"

"Cecilia Blythe."

"Oh, are you Gillie's cousin?"

"Yes, I am. Can you get your sister, please?"

"Oh, yes, of course." The girl evidently did not take much care in setting down the receiver as a loud clatter from that end of the line caused Cissy to flinch a bit. She heard running feet echo slowly into silence and then only a few moments later, new more sedate steps grow louder.

"Emmy, if you could remember to leave the phone on the table rather than the floor!" Cissy heard that with a grin, thinking of her own younger cousins. Then, directed at her, "Hello? Cecilia?"

"Yes! Hello! It's Cecilia." She paused, unsure what to say now that Jane was on the line. "Um, I was supposed to be coming up to stay with the Fords for a while."

"Oh, lovely. But why are you calling here?"

"You see, when I rang up at their house, I didn't get any answer, not even a maid or something. Do you know why that might be?" Another pause, long enough for Cissy to worry that the call might have dropped. But then:

"Oh, oh, oh, oh! I completely forgot. The Fords are up at their mountain house this week. They won't be back until Tuesday."

Cecily groaned softly. It was Thursday. "Was it a last minute affair?" she wondered aloud.

"Oh, no. I think its been planned for quite some time. No easy thing to pack up five children, assorted pets and the rest of the household."

"Not to mention all of my Aunt Ford's dresses," Cissy added good naturedly, in spite of her newly presented predicament.

"And all your Uncle Ford's suits. I've never met such a well dressed couple. Anyway, it seems they ought to have been expecting you?"

"Yes, they ought to have been." It wouldn't do any good to get angry, but she couldn't help but let some frustration echo in her voice. "My visit has been planned for at least two months."

"Well, I imagine the dates just got mixed up somewhere. I love the Fords, but I've never met a family more prone to mishap. There is always some minor catastrophe or misunderstanding wreaking havoc over at 28 Maple."

Cissy sighed. Didn't she know it. "It runs in the family. My grandmother is reputed by family lore to have had been just a walking accident as a child. She once put liniment in a cake in place of vanilla. My own mother seems quite born for the whole Blythe clan- people in Glen St. Mary still haven't forgotten her riding a pig down the thoroughfare, for all that it might have been almost thirty years ago."

"Oh, I hadn't heard that story before."

"I'll have to tell you more sometimes. There is one involving Aunt Rill running from a salted cod."

Jane's laughter rippled down the line. "I can hardly wait. In the meantime, you must come stay with us."

"Oh, no, I wouldn't imagine. I'll take a room somewhere." Talking of her family had soothed Cissy so much she had plain forgotten her surroundings at the bustling Toronto train station.

"You cannot believe I'd allow such a thing. I don't even know how you would manage it- I know you don't know Toronto a wit. Even if I wasn't ravenously eager to have you come stay now, I'd hardly be smart to let Gil's family know I left one of their own at the mercy of Toronto hoteling."

"I don't really think they'd hold it much against you," Cissy managed softly, though she was now quite taken with the idea of staying with Gil's mysterious girl, the much talked of Jane Stuart. She'd heard a great deal about Jane- that she came from one of Toronto's oldest, proudest families, that she was elegant, composed, well-dressed and soft-spoken. In short, some sort of metropolitan wonder girl. How could anyone less have snared her flirtatious cousin Gil?

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm coming for you at once. I assume you're at the airport."

"Yes."

"Excellent. Go to sit in the ladies waiting room, I'll send the driver inside for you. It shouldn't be more than a half hour."

"Alright." Cissy was glad to have the matter settled, but more she was excited to meet Gil's lovely Jane.

It had certainly been less than thirty minutes when the sleek black car pulled up to the curb, Cissy watching it through the windows of the waiting room. The driver stepped out and entered the room, as she quickly stood. He fetched her valises shortly, and only a moment later, she was climbing into the back of the car and getting her first look at Jane Stuart.

Instantly her thoughts flew to her own hair, flaming gold and unruly, curling out everywhere even from under her hat, as she first took in the dark, shining hair of Jane Stuart, combed into an elegant chignon at the nape of her neck, a tendril or two escaping to frame her face. She next thought ruefully of the freckles, straight from Grandmother Anne, that sprinkled her pale nose as she processed Jane's smooth, brown skin and lightly pinkened cheeks. Cissy took some comfort in the fact that Jane's chin was decidedly square with a slight cleave, but it somehow suited her. However, all of that was forgotten as Jane turned from the window to look at her and her mouth broke open into a wide smile.

"Hello! I can't tell you how glad I am to meet more of Gil's family."

Cissy flashed her eyes up at her as she settled herself beside Jane in the backseat and the car set off. "Oh? Well, we're nothing special." Nothing like the Kennedies of Toronto, Cissy thought to herself.

Jane immediately protested, "Oh, but of course you are! The Blythes are the authority on everything for a fifty mile radius round Glen St. Mary. Even before I started up with Gil, I was contriving to get an invitation to Ingleside."

Cissy's brows knit together in confusion. "I didn't know you knew the Island so well."

"Well, don't be so surprised! I'm an Island girl to the core, or hasn't Gil told you?"

"No-o-o-o, I don't believe I had heard that." Though that would certainly explain why Aunt Rilla was so pleased with her.

"Oh, well, my father's people are all from the Island and it's where my parents met, after the War. I was born there"- here was a small break in Jane's normally steady voice- "And now we spend our summers there."

Cissy was shocked. "Gil definitely didn't mention any of _that_. Where do you summer?"

"Up at Lantern Hill, overlooking Queen's Harbor. It's the loveliest patch of earth you'll ever find."

"And I'd say the same of Avonlea and Grandmother Anne the same of Glen St. Mary," Cissy avowed with a giggle glinting in her eye, "Every Islander I've ever met has been sure that their patch of it is the best. It seems to be the nature of the beast."

"I can't disagree. Now, I confess, I'm no expert on your family. There seems to be too many of you to keep track of and Gil never explains anything, he just mentions Aunt Faith or Grandfather Owen or little Winnie and Jonas, and I can never make heads nor tails of it all. Best I can make out, you're Walter's little sister, and your father is Mrs. Ford's brother, the doctor."

"You're right that far. And I'll be the first to admit, we're quite the family. It doesn't help that there are a number of double cousins, or cousins who are first and second to each other. It's all our parents' faults really, they didn't branch out much when they were sweethearting."

"Oh, well, you're going to have to help me. I can't go to the Island this summer- we leave in two weeks- not knowing, and Gil's just as likely to get himself mixed up."

"I won't deny that. I'll tell you the whole mess later, but I warn you, it will take a spell. And probably a diagram. Or two."

Jane tossed her head back in laughter. "I don't doubt you. It's good you're willing to wait, because we're here."

The car had arrived before a darling grey stone house, littered all over with casement windows, topped with a dark brown shingle roof, placed right at the edge of the ravine that defined the whole area, overlooking what Jane said was the Humber River below. And the whole thing was surrounded by the type of trees, tall, lofty pines, that always gave Grandmother Anne over to raptures.

"Oh, Jane. Your house is simply lovely!"  
The pride in Jane's voice as she replied was not misplaced. "It is, isn't it. The second I saw this house I knew it belonged to me. Dad felt the same when he saw it too, and we've all been very happy here."

"We all" were soon introduced to Jane. Mr. Stuart was out, but in short order Jane had met Mrs. Stuart, who was strikingly beautiful, if a bit dizzy, Emily, a blond beauty even at four, and Andy, the chubby, lovely almost two-year-old, just walking on his own.

She was promptly shown up to the second floor, where Jane turned to pose a very serious question. "Now, Cissy, we still have the spare room, having yet kept Emmy and Andy in their nursery. But I would much rather have you to myself in my room. So I leave the fatal decision to you."

Cissy could, from her vantage point at the top of the stairs, just see into the guest room, which she immediately identified as much to grand for little Cissy Blythe. "Oh, Jane, I'd much rather stay with you."

Jane gave another delighted laugh. "That's just perfect. Here we are then," and she pushed open one of the other doors on the hallway. "Now it's not the best room in the house; that of course, went to my parents, but it's second best, and the view's _much _better."

The view was the first thing Cissy noticed. Jane's window looked right over the ravine, flocked on either side by the tall pines, and gave the impression of looking out on a fairy wonderland, with the mists and fogs even remaining at this hour of the afternoon, just enough to great a golden aureole of the sunshine.

The rest of the room was very understated, with pale blue walls and white linens. All over, Jane could see reminders of the Island: a print of what was undeniably PEI shoreline, a branch of PEI maple, a bundle of dried flowers, the types she recognized from the fields near her house. It was delightful. Jane Stuart certainly wasn't turning out at all as she had expected. She was turning out much, much better.

Jane roped her into explaining the complex family tree that night, as they ate a dinner of cold sandwiches and what the cook called "sand fritters," delightful little caramel cookies, in the kitchen. The Stuarts were out at a party, having put the children to bed before going.

"You must explain it all," Jane insisted, "Who knows when we'll have another chance!"

"I suppose I ought to begin in the beginning… How much do you know about Mr. Ford's parents?"

"Only that his father was a writer and that his mother was the most beautiful woman alive when she was younger." She recited this as if it were gospel, which Cissy supposed in Blythe family lore, it was.

"That's about right. Owen Ford came to PEI to take some vacation and he met Mrs. Ford while he was there. She was already great friends with my Grandmother Anne, so when they each had children, they naturally kept them all together. The younger Mr. and Mrs. Ford were friends from childhood. They began sweet hearting just before the War, and got married not long after Armistice.

"But I'm getting ahead of myself. It really all begins with Grandmother Anne and Grandpa Gilbert. They met when Grandmother moved to Avonlea to live with the Mr. and Miss Cuthbert- Matthew and Marilla, like Aunt Rilla. Anyway, they hated each other from the moment he called her Carrots and fought with each other for years. Or Grandmother fought with him. Or something like that. Anyway, eventually they became great friends and they went to college together and, after Grandpa completed medical school, they got married and moved to Glen St. Mary.

"They had six kids, including my dad and Mrs. Ford, and eventually the Merediths came to town, when my Grandpa John was made the new minister at the Glen church. He was widowed, but soon he met Grandmother Rosemary, and they got married, and she helped bring up my aunts and uncles."

"Okay. So there are Blythes and Merediths and Fords."

"And then they all get married. The Blythe kids are a good place to start. My dad's the oldest, Jem, and he married my mother, Faith Meredith. He became the doctor in Avonlea after he finished his medical degree and then they had all us lot. Walter you know, apparently, and then there's me, Cecilia after my actual grandmother, Grandpa John's first wife, and last, Meredith Rose, who we all call Merry. She's eleven."

Jane nodded. "I can handle that."

"My Uncle Walter was next, but he died in the War. My Walter's named after him. Then there's the twins. Aunt Di was named after Grandmother Anne's closest friend, and she actually married one of her sons, Uncle Jack. And they have three children: Cordelia Anne, who's sixteen, Matthew, after Mr. Cuthbert, and May Joyce. Matt's my age, we're great friends, even though they all live over in Charlottetown. Aunt Nan married Jerry Meredith, so their kids are my double cousins. They have Bertha Diana, who we all call Birdie-"

Jane interrupted here, "Marnie's mentioned her."

"I'm not surprised, they're best friends. They were born less than two weeks apart. And then they have Jack, and Gerald and Rosemary Anne, who's ten. Uncle Jerry's a minister in Lowbridge, which isn't far from Glen St. Mary."

"I've hear of Lowbridge, I have a friend who married a man over there."

"Oh, you'll have to mention that when you visit this summer. I don't know anyone, since I'm stuck over in Avonlea most of the time. So going down the line is Uncle Shirley. He married Emma Blake, whose mother, Philippa Gordon, was Grandmother Anne's best friend at Redmond. They have Jonas, my other best friend, and Susan, who's one of the whole gang born in '28.

"Then last but not least is Aunt Rilla, but you know their family."

"Yes, Gil, Marnie, Owen, Blythe and Gemmy all in turn"

"And I suppose to finish things off, I ought to tell you that Mr. Ford's sister Persis married the last Meredith boy, Carl, and they have Leslie; Benjamin, after Owen Ford's father; and Selwyn, who we call Winnie. She's the youngest of the whole lot, she's only six."

"You are a complicated crew aren't you? But I love it, you've got a big raucous family. I always wanted one of those when I was growing up. I only had one superior cousin. It was very lonely at Grandmother Kennedy's."  
Cissy was confused. "You were living with your Grandmother? Where were your parents?"

"My mother and I were living with my Grandmother, when my parents were separated." Jane said this with complete aplomb, but Cissy was immediately mortified.

"Oh dear, I didn't know! I'm so sorry."

Jane had finished eating while Cissy had been outlining her very large family, and now swept her plate of the table over to the sink, waving one hand dismissively as she said, "I forgot you didn't know. It's common knowledge in Toronto. Gil knew all about it before we even met. My mother left my father when I was three and it took them years to get back together. They finally did, and we all moved here, into this house, and we got Emmy and Andy." She turned from the sink, bracing her arms on either side of her, and smiled broadly as she finished with, "And that's that."

Cissy was halfway through chewing a bite of sandwich. She managed to swallow before replying, "I think that's so romantic." She muffled a yawn.

Jane's smile was rueful now, "I suppose it was. I was the reason they finally broke their stalemate. I'd heard a rumor from my wretched aunt that Dad was going to actually divorce her and marry another woman. I caught the next train to the Island that I could manage and then walked miles in the rain to get to Lantern Hill." Cissy propped her head up on her arm, and listened closely, though her eyes were slightly out of focus. "I managed to contract a dreadfully dangerous case of pneumonia, and so Dad had to telegram Mother. When they actually saw each other, face to face, they couldn't stand it anymore. They fell right back in love. Or more, realized they were still in love."

Cissy sighed. "That's so romantic. And they're such a handsome couple." Then she yawned. Jane thought about it a moment, a wistful look on her face.

"They are, aren't they. I always rather think so, but everyone gets so hung up on Mother they forget about plain old Dad. In any case, I was going to tell you the story of how me and Gil met, in exchange for the oral family tree, but now I think I'll wait."

"Why?" Cissy's voice dragged out to the point of whining.

"Because you are half asleep at the table, sweetheart. Come on, let's up to bed."

And Jane dragged her up the stairs and tucked her in to bed, quick as a wink. Cissy was asleep before she even had time to burrow into the cushy pillow and soft linens. Jane took a moment to smile down on her before going to read a bit before going to bed herself.


End file.
